Finn

Finn comes from an Irish name meaning “fair”, “blessed” or “white” derived from Proto-Celtic *windos (white). Finn is the older spelling of Fionn, which belongs to the name of a warrior in Irish myth known as Fionn mac Cumhaill (or Finn MacCool in English) and the leader of the Fianna. His birth name was Deimne but he was later nicknamed Fionn when his hair turned prematurely white.

Finn also comes from Old Norse Finnr meaning “a Finn, a Sami, Lapp”, a given name and byname used to refer to someone who came from Finland or was part of the Sami people (also known as Lapps). Although the origin behind  finnr is uncertain it has been linked to Old Norse meaning “wanderer”. Finnr is the name of a dawrf mentioned in the Völuspá, the first poem in the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems. Finn is also a surname which could be be derived from both sources, as well as being a short form of names like Finley, Finnegan, or Thorfinn/Torfinn

Origin: Proto-Celtic, Old Norse

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Varinats:

• Fionn (Irish)
• Fion (Irish)
• Finnagán (Irish diminutive of Fionn)
• Fionnán (Irish diminutive of Fionn)
• Finnán (older form of Fionnán)
• Finnr (Ancient Scandinavian)
• Finnur (Icelandic)
• Fína (Greenlandic)
• Finna (Greenlandic)

 

Female forms:

• Fiona (Scottish, English)
• Finna (female form of Finnr; Old Norse, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian)

 

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Dido

Dido (pr. die-do) is the name of the Carthaginian queen featured in Virgil’s Aeneid. She was the founder and very first queen of Carthage (located in modern day Tunisia), who killed herself by throwing herself onto a funeral pyre after the Roman hero Aeneas left her to find a new home for the Trojan people. Though Dido’s real name was Elissa, she was also known as Dido later on, a name which seems to have been given to her by the Libyans meaning “wanderer” since she and her people had been wandering, searching for a new home before arriving at North Africa where she founded Carthage. Other possibly meanings for the name I’ve seen are it could possibly be from Phoenician meaning “virgin”, or related to Akkadian didu used to refer to a woman’s robe (dida) meaning “loosened” or “torn”.

Origin: Libyan, Phoenician, Akkadian

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Variants:

• Didone (Italian)
• Didon (French)

 

Trip

Trip comes from a word referring to a journey or a voyage, or it refers to someone who stumbles and falls. It comes from Old French tripper (strike with the feet, tread or skip lightly) which comes from a Germanic source; or it could be from Middle Dutch trippen meaning “to skip, hop, trot, stamp, trample”. Tri- is also a Latin root word meaning “three”, used in conjection with other words such as triple and trisect, so Trip could be used with that in mind, or it could also be used as  nickname for someone who is the third (III) generation of the same name.

Origin: Old French Middle Dutch, Latin

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Variants:

• Tripp (English)

 

Leatrice

Leatrice seems to be a combination of two names, Leah (a Hebrew female name possibly meaning “weary, languid, tired” though it’s also been associated with the meaning of “cow”. It might also be related to an Akkadian word meaning “mistress”); and Beatrice, the Italian form of Beatrix which means ‘”happy” or “blessed” from Latin beatus, taking on the meaning of “she who makes happy” or it could be a variant form of Viatrix, also from Latin meaning “female traveler/voyager”. It’s just as likely that Leatrice is a variant spelling of Liatris, the name of a genus of flowers also known as blazing star and gayfeather, native to North America (including Mexico and the Bahamas). I couldn’t find anything behind the name.

Origin: Hebrew, Akkadian, Latin

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Variants:

• Liatris

 

Ara

Ara is the Latin word for “altar” as well as the name of a constellation in the southern hemisphere. According to Greek mythology, it received its name when the Greek gods overthrew the Titans and the smoke from the altar was what the Milky Way represented. Other possible meanings in Latin are “refuge” and “protection, sanctuary” while in Greek ara means “prayer”, “vow”, and “curse”. Ara is also the singular form of Arai (also spelled Arae), female spirits (or daimones) of curses summoned from the underworld by the dead on those responsible for their deaths. They’re often confused with the Furies (Erinyes) and seem to be the children of Nyx, goddess of the night.

Ara is also the name of a legendary Armenian prince also known as Ara the Handsome because he was so beautiful that even the legendary queen Semiramis (known as Shamiram in Armenian) waged a war to capture him but he ended up being killed in battle. The meaning behind the name is unknown. Ara could also be a variant spelling of Arah, a Hebrew male name meaning “wayfarer, wanderer”. It could also be a nickname for names that being with Ara such as Arabella, Araceli, Ariadne and Arianna, etc. It’s also a place name in several places, as well as also being a Korean female name meaning “to know, to be wise” (아라).

Origin: Latin, Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, Korean

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Variants:

• Arah (Hebrew)
• Arra (English)

 

Perry

Perry is a nickname for Peregrine, from Latin Peregrinus meaning “traveler”, or Percival, likely based on Welsh Peredur meaning “hard spear” though the spelling of the name was altered to resemble Old French percer val “to pierce the valley”. Perry is also an English surname which comes from Middle English perrie meaning “pear tree”, referring to someone who lived near a pear tree. As a Welsh patrynomic surname it comes from ap Herry meaning “son of Herry”, the latter a medieval English form of Henry meaning “home ruler”. Spelled Perri, it’s an Italian surname derived from given name Peter meaning “stone”.

Origin: Latin, Welsh, Old French, Greek

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Variants:

• Peregrine
• Percival
• Perri (u)
• Peri (u)
• Perrie (u)